


The Hopeless Hazard

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Series of Unfortunate Events - Lemony Snicket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-12
Updated: 2006-12-12
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:25:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1638797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Relia</p>
    </blockquote>





	The Hopeless Hazard

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Relia

 

 

Hope is a funny thing. It's one of the few things in the world that can make you miserable by having too much of it and by having none of it at all. Having any hope in something is always dangerous because you always have the chance of getting your hopes up, a phrase which here means "the horrible situation you're in doesn't get any better even though you tried your best to rectify it". And you can also be in a hopeless situation where you have somehow gotten yourself in such a fix that there is no way of coming back from it. There's no running away from the misery hope can cause.

Many would say that Violet Baudelaire's current situation was a hopeless one. They wouldn't be wrong to say so. Floating along in a boat in the middle of the ocean looking for someone who had been missing for over a year doesn't illicit much hope from anyone. Even Violet herself was beginning to wonder why she was even out here. The small boat she had rented had been teetering across the calm ocean for five days now, with no sign of anything resembling life. She was beginning to wonder if she should give up looking for him and just accept the fact that he was gone.

The last Violet had heard of her friend Quigley Quagmire he had been sucked up by what could only be described as a giant question mark, described by a friend as "The Great Unknown". Quigley hadn't been alone at the time, his brother and sister and a man named Hector were with him. But still, whenever Violet thought about why she decided to go on this journey Quigley's face popped into her mind.

Violet sighed and stuck her hand over the edge of the boat. The water was cool against her fingers and shuddered to think of any of her friends lost in it. She scanned the water again for the umpteenth, an expression which here means "many", time today. She still wasn't quite sure what she was looking for. A question mark, a notebook, and any scrap of evidence of where her dear Quigley had gone.

She hadn't known Quigley for very long and even when they were together it was brief. But in those short days she had grown close to him, closer than she thought possible. She even shared her first kiss with him, something that still made her heart flutter when she thought about it. When she had lost him in the Stricken Stream she had felt a pain that she hadn't felt since her parents died. Still, she had hope that they would be together again and that perhaps one day they could try to have a normal relationship. This was something she thought of often during the last five days she had been on this boat. She imagined having a life with Quigley similar to the life her parents had. I myself wished to have a similar life with a woman I loved very much but it was impossible to achieve while she was alive and even more impossible when she was dead. That is a hopeless situation that I hope you never find yourself in.

Violet was afraid that she had found herself in a hopeless situation. Again the phrase "Why?" crept into her mind, making her unsure of herself. This hadn't been the first time she doubted herself on this trip. Each time it happened she became more and more sure that what she was doing was stupid and pointless. "Perhaps this had been a silly thing to do in the first place." She thought to herself "I could always go back home to Klaus and Sunny. Yes, this was silly of me. I'm going back."

She felt a tear roll down her face. She didn't know what to do at all. Her heart and her head were fighting with each other and even she was surprised by the fact that her heart was much stronger. Violet took her hand out of the water and stuck it in her pocket to draw out a long ribbon to tie her hair up with. This often helped her think clearly but it was no help when it came to thinking about Quigley. Her mind, usually so logical, was filled with all sorts of emotions that she couldn't even begin to understand. She was frightened of feeling so strongly for someone she had just met briefly. When she thought of him she was confused as to how someone could make her so happy. After all the misery in her life she was uncomfortable with happiness. But one thing she did know for a fact was that she didn't want to get rid of the feelings she had for him. No matter how confusing or frightening it was, she knew that he was the best thing that had happened to her.

Violet smiled to herself as she thought of something her mother had said long ago. She had been watching her mother get ready to go to the theater with her father. Violet had done this often because this would be the time where she and her mother could have talks about things that she said were for "girls ears only."

"How did you know you were in love with Father?" asked Violet, being genuinely curious about the feeling she had seen described in so many books.

Mrs. Baudelaire smiled at her daughter and turned away from her vanity in order to face Violet. "It's not just the feeling of fireworks in your heart like you read in books, Violet. It's more than that...it's...it's knowing that no matter what, no matter where you are you know that there is somewhere out there who is thinking of you. There's someone out there who wants to be with you, no matter where they are in the world. And you want them too."

"Is that how I'll know when I fall in love with someone?" asked Violet

"You'll know when it happens Violet." Said Mrs. Baudelaire; taking her daughter's hand into her own. "Because when it does you'll want to find that person immediately and tell them how you feel."

Violet felt more tears run down her face. Not out of sadness, but out of relief. She felt her heart pound in her chest and she realized that she was in love. This was more than a hopeless search of a girl trying to find meaning in a tragedy. This was a woman trying to find the man she loved.

It was then that the sea began to rumble as if it knew about Violet's epiphany. Epiphany is a word which here means "realizing why she had gone out to find Quigley in the first place". Violet gripped the sides of the boat with all of her might out of fear of tumbling out. She leaned over the edge to look into the sea. She gasped when she saw what looked like a giant question mark heading towards the ship. Now if I had been in this situation I would have leapt off the boat and started swimming as fast as I could in the opposite direction, love or no love. But Violet Baudelaire was made of sterner stuff. She managed to stand up in the middle of the boat, trying to get a better look of The Great Unknown and hopefully letting The Great Unknown getting a better look of her.

There was another rumble and the question mark stopped a few feet away from Violet and her boat. There was silence for a few moments. Just when Violet was about to address The Great Unknown, whatever it was, she noticed that it was beginning to suck in the water all around it. The swirling hole got bigger and bigger and Violet felt the boat start to head towards the swirling vortex. Panic gripped Violet and she considered jumping out of the boat. But then she thought of Quigley and the words of her mother. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes and let the boat inch nearer into The Great Unknown.

She didn't know where she was going. She didn't know what was going to happen. She didn't even know if she was going to survive being sucked into the water. But she hoped she was going to live. She hoped she was going to see Quigley. She hoped that when she found him they would never have to be apart again. She hoped that he loved her as much as she loved him.

She hoped.

 

 

 


End file.
